Bird, early offense lead Miners past Otters
When Ryan Bird concluded his warm-up prior to making a start on four days of rest Sunday afternoon, the Southern Illinois Miners righthander wasn’t exactly optimistic.
“For some reason I was just really stiff,” he said. “Throwing my bullpen I was like, ‘this could be a rough day.’”
While Bird did struggle with his command early, his teammates were there to back him up on defense and offense.
Instead of what Bird thought might be a tough outing, the Miners’ ace found his rhythm and pitched seven shutout innings to help lead Southern Illinois past Evansville, 11-4, in front of 4,014 fans at Rent One Park.
“This is the first time in a while that I’ve been on four days’ rest,” said Bird, who hasn’t lost a decision since June 17. “It just seemed like I couldn’t get quite loose. It took me three innings to even get there. I was just kind of all over the place. I couldn’t find the zone. And then I couldn’t fine the umpire’s zone either.
“After that third inning, everything kind of just cruised by. In the fourth inning, I was zoned in and everything came together.”
The way things have been going for Bird (13-3) since the end of June, not even an off few innings could keep him from picking up his 13th victory of the season in rather impressive fashion.
Bird stranded four Otters during the first three innings, but ended up retiring 15 of the final 16 batters he faced. He allowed just four hits, walked one hitter and fanned 10.
That gave Bird 135 strikeouts on the season and leaves him just 22 shy of breaking the Frontier League’s single-season record of 156.
“The last two weeks I try to not think about that stuff. I really try not to look at numbers or anything like that, but people are kind of whispering it to me,” Bird said. “And Pinto even said, ‘The only reason he went out there in the seventh was I wanted to see if he could get another strikeout.’ So a few more starts, I don’t know, we’ll see what happens. It’s not that I’m shooting for it. I’m shooting for wins. If it happens, great.”
The Miners supplied Bird plenty of offensive support, especially early in the game as Southern Illinois held a comfortable 6-0 lead after three innings.
In the first, Kevin Koski led off with an opposite-field single followed by a bunt single from Eric Suttle on a sacrifice attempt and another single from Joey Metropoulos that loaded the bases. Tim Dorn, who was Saturday night’s hero with a walk-off grand slam, ripped an RBI single to left field.
After Brendan Akashian gounded into a double play that scored Suttle, Brandon Jones added a run-scoring single for a quick 3-0 lead, which is something manager Mike Pinto hoped to get Sunday.
“(It was) nothing I said. Getting those early runs is important,” Pinto said. “It kind of set the tone for the rest of the game.”
Metropoulos got it started in the third when he crushed a line drive at third baseman Alex Fonseca, who had the ball in the webbing of his glove before it popped out. That error was followed by four consecutive hits.
Dorn doubled and scored along with Metropoulos on Akashian’s two-run single. Jones hit another single as did newcomer Andre Miller, which loaded the bases. Manny Paula made it a six-run cushion with his RBI groundout.
“The energy was ridiculous,” Jones said about the momentum carried over from the Miners’ seven-run rally to win 8-6 the night before. “We just couldn’t wait to get back today. When you win like that, all you want to do is play the next day.”
Giving Bird a six-run lead to work with on the hill is basically lights out for the opposition, and Evansville was no exception.
“I always kind of feel if I’ve got Ryan on the mound with a six-run lead, the game is over,” Pinto said. “To be honest with you, with a three-run lead you’re still pretty comfortable.”
The Miners tacked on a single run in the seventh as Dorn, moved to third on Akashian’s double and later scored on Miller’s RBI single for a 7-0 advantage.
Southern Illinois put up a four-spot in the eighth as Metropoulos, Akashian and newcomer Andrew Bennett each had RBI singles while Miller added a run-scoring walk.
Seven Miners enjoyed multi-hit performances led by Akashian’s three-hit day with three RBI. Koski, Suttle, Metropoulos, Dorn, Jones and Miller each added two hits. Randy Rosa collected his third pinch-hit in as many days as the Miners banged out 17 total hits.
“The one thing Mike has always said is to go up and try to have a good at-bat,” Jones said. “You’re going to fail seven out of 10 times. That’s baseball. Eventually, you’re going to have those games when you’re hitting. Today it worked.”
The Miners (49-32) remained on top of the West Division standings by one-and-a-half games over Windy City (47-33). Southern Illinois hits the road in Michigan this week, beginning with a three-game series at East Division leader Kalamazoo (51-30) on Tuesday before heading up to Traverse City (43-38) on Friday.
“We have been doing well on the road and will try to continue that,” Jones said. “Every game from here on out is going to be a big game in determining who wins the division and who gets into the playoffs.”
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Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 1:15 am under